The Sweetest Man in the World
by SussiRay
Summary: A story based on the prompt "Emily is pregnant, Hotch isn't the father but he wants to be".


**A/N: This story is done as a gift for my friend and fellow fanfic author **_**hotchityhotchhotch**_** for being reviewer # 210 on my other story Coming Back Home. She gave me a prompt and this is what came from that. Though the theme is similar to that in CBH, this is not related to that in any way.**

**As always, I do not own Criminal Minds.**

**Please enjoy.**

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**The Sweetest Man in the World**

Her hands fanned across her rounded belly. Leaning forward, as well as one could when you are eight and a half months pregnant, she whispered softly to her unborn son, "Just a few more weeks, Baby. Then it's you and me." She smiled, her crazy pregnancy hormones were prodding at her tear ducts trying to get the waterworks to start working overtime. But she willed it away. She had cried about the cards that life had dealt her before, she wasn't going to do it ever again.

She glanced out the window, watching the Capitol lit up brightly against the dark night sky, rubbing her hand slowly along the curve of her stomach. A smile touched her face as the sofa cushion dipped with the weight of another body.

"You okay?" A deep rumbling voice asked her.

"I am now," she smiled back, "sitting next to you always makes me feel better."

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**Seven months earlier**

Emily stood in the door opening of Hotch's office, contemplating whether she should just walk in or if she should turn on her heel, run away and go into hiding the coming months. She didn't have to make a choice. He did it for her.

"Coming or going, Prentiss?" He looked up from the file he had been perusing during the minute she had been standing in his doorway and arched an eyebrow at her.

"Uh... coming," she said and took a few steps into his office. Looking at him she inhaled deeply. "Uhm, Hotch do you have a second?"

"Of course, Emily."

Him calling her by her first name made her stop and briefly wonder if her nervous state was that obvious that he would resort to her first name. The slight crease between his dark eyebrows told her that it was.

"Take a seat," he said and she gingerly lowered herself onto the vacant chair. "So... what's up?" He gazed at her, his eyes curious and friendly and she felt a tug at her heart that made her nerves even more glaringly present. What if he pulled her off the team? Granted he hadn't done that with JJ. But JJ wasn't a field agent, a giant belly wouldn't come in the way of her job. It would come in the way of Emily's.

"Uhm, there's something I need to tell you. It's personal... or actually it's professional too... that's why I have to tell you." She knew that she was rambling. She just couldn't help it, her head hadn't been screwed on right the last couple of weeks. Not since she found out. "That is I am required to tell you this... but that's not why I'm telling you... I want you to know."

"Okay, now you're scaring me a little, Emily," he said, his gaze becoming more intense. "What is it?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant and you're my superior so you need to know that."

His eyebrows rose, eyes widened, something dark that she couldn't quite pinpoint flashed through them for less than a second. Then his mask descended over his features again, rendering him unreadable. "Oh, congratulations," he said, his voice somewhat flat, "I didn't know that you were seeing someone that seriously."

"Oh," Emily said, feeling embarrassment flood her. Now she had to explain to him that she didn't have a serious boyfriend, she'd just managed to get knocked up by a stranger. "Uhm, no Hotch, this wasn't planned. I... I kinda had a one night stand with a guy I met at a bar and, well, I guess our method of contraception failed." She laughed nervously.

"Oh, I see," he said and she could have sworn that she saw the faintest trace of relief ghost over his set face. "So, if you don't mind my asking, how has it gone with the child's father?"

"Not at all," Emily admitted. Not that she wanted anything from this guy. No promises, not a ring, not even a date. He had just been convenient for the moment, a warm body. She did not want to play happy family with him. He wasn't the one that made her heart leap. He didn't enter her dreams. But she had hoped that he would have wanted to be a part of his child's life. But no, he wanted none of it.

"I'm sorry," Hotch said and she could tell that he really meant it.

Then he fell silent, not speaking for several minutes. Emily eyed him carefully, wondering if he was contemplating how to best go about telling her that he was pulling her out of the field and making her stay at precincts working victimology from now on. She had just decided to take a bite out of the sour apple and just ask him when he looked up his eyes meeting hers.

"I think it's very brave of you," he said.

"Sorry?"

"That you're going to raise a child on your own, it's not easy." He smiled and immediately her whole body was filled with a comfortable heat. "It's very brave of you."

She smiled. "I just can't _not_ have this baby," she said as one hand came up to cover her still flat stomach. "I want this baby so badly."

"I can understand that," he smiled. Shifting in his seat, he drew a breath. "So, uhm, Emily, have you been to the doctor yet?"

"Yeah, I went a few weeks ago and then I have another check a week from now... Why?" she said, fearing that he was going to tell her that she would be taken off field duty.

His eyes darted across her face. He seemed almost nervous. "I just thought that maybe you'd want someone to go with you. I'm sure it can be a bit overwhelming to go alone."

"Would you do that?" she said, feeling her tears threatening her and cursing her overflowing hormones. "Would you really go with me?"

"Of course. If you wanted me to." He gave her another smile and she knew that no matter what she did or where she went she would never meet a sweeter man.

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He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. Bending down he whispered against her stomach, "Hey little man. You're being nice to Mommy, right?"

She looked at the man talking quietly to her stomach and her heart swelled with love. It had taken him two months before he had asked her out on a proper date. Dinner, a little dancing and then they'd called it an early night and gone back to her place. He had kissed her and he had promised her that he would never leave and let her go through it alone. And he hadn't. He had been with her every step of the way.

"Emily?"

The sound of his voice made her look up, removing her from her inner musings. He had stopped humming to her belly and was watching her closely.

"There's something I'd like to talk to you about," he said and she nodded. "We've been seeing each other five months now and you know how much I love you and how much I love Baby too," he cleared his throat, "what I mean to say is that I don't want to be apart from you two... Ever." He tightened the grip around her shoulders before continuing. "Please, Emily, move in with me and let's raise Jack and the little one together, like a family."

She looked into his dark eyes, her hands gripping the front of his shirt as she pulled him closer to lightly brush her lips against his. _Oh yeah, _she thought to herself as his lips pressed gently against hers, _this is the sweetest man in the world_.

**The End**

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**A/N: Thanks for reading! The prompt was "Emily is pregnant, Hotch isn't the father but wants to be". Hope you all enjoyed this little piece of fluff!**

**Don't forget to vote in the Profiler's Choice CM Awards! ****Three of my stories, **_**Coming Back Home (Best Angst & Best Hotch/Emily), The Mix Up (Best Morgan/Emily) and The Train Ride (Best Erotica & Best Het Romance) **_**and I (**_**Best New Overall Author**_**) have been nominated!**

**x Sussi**


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